Raimundo opposes Nvidia’s chip exports to China

Raimundo opposes Nvidia’s chip exports to China

Washington, December 7th .2023

US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimundo recently made her position on export controls clear at the Reagan National Defense Forum with probably the harshest statements against China and Nvidia.

The minister warned chip sector officials to believe that Washington will „change“ its approach to export controls so that companies like Nvidia will no longer be prevented from innovating specifically for the Chinese market.

“Our national defense consists of more than weapons, missiles, tanks and drones. It is technology, it is innovation, it is cooperation with our allies,” emphasized Raimondo at the defense forum.

“We can’t allow China to get these chips.” Raimundo was referring to Nvidia’s plan to introduce new AI chips specifically for the Chinese market. She’s referring to the A800 and H800 – which the chip maker designed to meet US export control regulations “I’ll check it the next day.”

But what does the resolute minister have in mind?
“We need a new way to have an ongoing dialogue with industry where our engineers can be on equal terms with their engineers, and we go to them and say that our intention is to deny our technologies to the Chinese. He continued: „We need to get to a point with the industry where we say our national security goal is not to have AI special sauce in your chip…just don’t do it.“

For Raiomundo, China is an adversary that the US must not only “out-innovate” but also prevent from making progress in critical technologies.

“Our opponents, especially China, show up every day with money, infrastructure and jobs, and if we want to win, we have to show up too.”
Technologies like supercomputing and AI “in the wrong hands are as deadly as any weapon that
we could provide,” she once said.

“If you don’t go far enough, China will get our technology and they could do nuclear simulations or whatever they want.”

The Chinese Foreign Ministry reacted negatively to Raimondo’s comments. A spokesman recalled an earlier remark by US President Joe Biden that „the US has no intention of stopping China’s economic development or scientific and technological progress.“

„Conflicting statements from US officials make it difficult to win China’s trust,“ Wang was quoted as saying by state media Global Times.

“China never goes against the US and has no intention of challenging or overthrowing the US.

Referring to a summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Biden in San Francisco last month, Wang said the US must implement the „important consensus“ reached during the meeting. The US must „stop treating China as an imaginary enemy, correct the misguided approach of promoting great power rivalry under the guise of competition, and avoid saying one thing and doing another,“ he added.

Raimundo let that slide and explained to the world how the Chinese would behave:
“Every day, China wakes up and tries to figure out how to get around export controls every minute of the day…That means we have to wake up every minute of the day, tighten those controls, and take enforcement more seriously with our allies.”…with the Dutch, with the Japanese, with the Europeans,” Raimondo said.